German insurance industry association GDV has forecast around €5.5bn worth of claims due to extreme flooding earlier this month.  

The insurance watchdog has upped its estimates from between €4bn and €5bn last week.

Germany’s biggest insurer Allianz issued its first damages estimate of more than €500m yesterday from the storm known as storm Bernd.

The flooding, near Cologne and Bavaria, collapsed houses, washed away cars and left people stranded on rooftops.

Some 40,000 vehicles were damaged or destroyed. While at least 180 people were killed.

If claims follow their current trajectory, this year is on course to be the most expensive for German insurers since 2002.

Allianz has already had around 10,000 claims for homes and 3,000 for vehicles.

The firm expects the figures to rise to 30,000 and 5,000 respectively.